Thursday, December 24, 2009

Our Senatorial Gift

As the Senators vote to pass their bill to extend insurance to thirty million more people while failing to address malpractice or physician payment reform, we can all only hope and pray that it's worth it in the end.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

If I read Dr. Gottleib's editorial in the WSJ today correctly, this means that the patient can't sue the government for refusing a treatment or diagnostic test, but physicians are still liable if there is failure to diagnose or offer treatment.

I don't understand why physicians would be so opposed to a reform that gives insurance to 30 million pople who can't currently afford it. Are we concerned about the health of people in this country, or only about those who can afford health insurance? Thank the policies of republicans who hav long relied on the trickle down theory of economics to provid for th middl class; unfortunatley, all we have seen is a further disparity of incomes in this country leaving more and more people unable to afford health insurance.

I would agree that tort reform would have been a nice addition, and we most definately need payment reform, but with all those republicans harping about the size of the bill, I think some things need to be left for future legislation.

Apparently it is OK to wage war and give wealthy folks a big tax break that has cost us more than a trillion dollars in deficit spending (boy did that do a great job of stimulating growth in the economy, at least for Halliburton), but not spend it on health care. and at least the democrats provided the mony to cover th bill, unlike the republicans who gave us the pharmacy benefit for Meicare recipients without a dime to pay for it.

we can't all make a living trolling blogs and posting talking points. Those of us who actually have practiced under the current regime have real reason to be concerned about the long term viability of our profession, those not trapped by debt will leave, most of those who are will practice across the border. Those whose shoulders we stand on sold us out by allowing the camel nose under the tent with Medicare. Now my generation of physicians has to pay the bill.

Most common mistake: Insurance equals access. Tell that to a Medicare patient seeking a PCP. The PCPs have walked away from the Medicare patient.

The political class are trying to impose rationing not by leveling with the American people buy by placing a stranglehold on the doctors. The doctors will be squeezed to ration. Pure backdoor capitation. A new low for lawmakers.

Anonymous said "most of those who are will practice across the border." Oh look, more bluffing and hyperbole. Define "most." Are you talking about 51% of physicians moving across the border (I assume you mean to Mexico?)? 80%? 98%? What utter b.s. That is just as true as the claim 5 years ago that "most" docs would have to stop practicing without tort "reform" and would all move to states with tort laws that absolve them of accountability for their actions. Sorry. That one has overstayed its welcome and no one believes it anymore.

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About Me

Westby G. Fisher, MD, FACC is a board certified internist, cardiologist, and cardiac electrophysiologist (doctor specializing in heart rhythm disorders) practicing at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, IL, USA and is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. He entered the blog-o-sphere in November, 2005.
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this blog are strictly the those of the author(s) and should not be construed as the opinion(s) or policy(ies) of NorthShore University HealthSystem, nor recommendations for your care or anyone else's. Please seek professional guidance instead.